(commonly misattributed to Jonah Gerondi). Issur VeHeter [dietary laws]

ASCHKENAZI, YONAH

Abraham ibn Usque

Ferrara

1555

FIRST EDITION. With the rare unrecorded two leaf addendum of corrections, most likely an earlier issue of this first edition. Title within architectural arch with the printer’s device of an armillary sphere resting on a scroll with verse from Psalm 130:5 (illustrated EJ, Vol. XIII, col. 1094, no. 7). Numerous 17th-century inscriptions and annotations, many by R. Moshe ben Ephraim Bachrach.

Vinograd, Ferrara 32.

The author was a disciple of the Terumoth Hadeshen, R. Israel Isserlin. The printed notes on the margins are by the editor, R. Azariah b. Shimon, known as R. Ziskind of Posen. The printer, formerly known as Duarte Pinel, fled his home in Portugal, for safety in Italy, following the unmasking of his heretofore concealed Marrano identity in 1550. Ibn Usque was responsible for the appearance two years earlier of the celebrated “Ferrara Bible” - the first edition of the Old Testament in Spanish - a testament to the tolerance and liberal sentiment of the princely Family of Este, rulers of the Duchy of Ferrara. Many of the books he printed were philosophical in nature; this work is one of only three Halachic texts ibn Usque printed. See D. Amram, Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp. 280-7.